India-US Kickstart Bilateral Trade Talks As Tariff Concerns Loom
The talks are expected to cover the initial contours of the bilateral trade agreement, schedule of negotiations and terms of reference.
Senior trade officials of India and the US on Wednesday formally commenced three-day talks in New Delhi, on the proposed bilateral trade agreement, even as concerns on reciprocal tariffs from the Trump administration loom.
The talks are expected to cover the initial contours of the bilateral trade agreement, schedule of negotiations and terms of reference. The countries are also expected to exchange a list of items and sectors that require tariff reviews.
This is the first set of official meetings between the two countries, notwithstanding Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal's informal visit to the US earlier this month.
A team, led by Assistant US Trade Representative for South and Central Asia Brendan Lynch, is in India from March 25–29 for "meetings with Indian interlocutors as part of ongoing bilateral trade discussions", according to the US Embassy in India. They will meet senior officials from the Commerce Ministry's NAFTA division, which is headed by Additional Secretary Rajesh Agrawal.
The first tranche of the BTA is expected to be finalised by September this year, and will likely cover issues related to tariff reductions, while others such as visas and technology transfers might be touched upon in the second tranche.
The formal commencement of the negotiations for the trade pact is expected soon. Lynch's visit comes on the heels of the April 2 reciprocal-tariff-imposition deadline, one that has been repeatedly used as a threat by Trump, while asking trading partners like India to reduce tariffs on a variety of American products.
As part of the BTA, the two countries have also agreed to boost trade to $500 billion by 2030. It will also entail deeper market access to India for US companies, and also tariff concessions on both sides. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has stated that India should open up its agricultural market, a sector it has so far remained protectionist of, given that the country is a very large agrarian economy.
Trump has continued his salvo against India, revealing that India has signalled its readiness to make deeper tariff cuts, after he ramped up pressure on the country to lower trade barriers that he deems "unfair".
